leggy

adjective

leg·​gy ˈle-gē 

 also  ˈlā-

leggier; leggiest

1

a

: having very long legs

In high school in Wareham, Mass., Davis ran track. She was tall, leggy and fast.

—Anamaria Wilson

The best time to view the cranes is 30 minutes before and after sunrise, just before they leave to feed for the morning. The leggy birds generally return to the wildlife area before noon, where they will remain for the rest of the day.

—States News Service

b

: having long and attractive legs

… the person with the answers is a leggy brunette dressed slickly in black.

—Leon Wieseltier

c

: having many legs

Later, when other specialists scoured the same small area in California looking for these millipedes, they came back empty-handed. Part of the problem is that the leggy creatures are hard to see.

—Emily Sohn

2

: having long shoots or stems with little foliage : spindly

Both plants are somewhat leggy and therefore a bit awkward on their own but look just fine in a crowd.

—Tom Peace

Mahonias and nandinas often get leggy and bare at the bottom as they mature.

—Fred C. Galle

Seedlings become "leggy" if they don't get enough light. … The stems will stretch and grow weak if they are too far from the lights.

—Rita Buchanan

—used of a plant

legginess

ˈle-gē-nəs 

 also  ˈlā-

noun

Examples of leggy in a Sentence

The bush has gotten leggy and needs to be pruned.

Recent Examples on the Web

Oftentimes, shade in the Southern zones will just result in leggy plants, which means weaker plants. —Katherine Owen, Southern Living, 4 Apr. 2024

On Monday, March 4, a leggy model walked the runway at the Marine Serre fall-winter 2024 fashion show in Paris, and onlookers were briefly confused into thinking the legendary Kate Moss had returned to the catwalk. —Elizabeth Logan, Glamour, 4 Mar. 2024

There’s a Busby Berkeley moment when the leggy octet surrounds a reclining Rodrigo, shot from an overhead camera for the big screen in the rear. —Chris Willman, Variety, 25 Feb. 2024

The lawn grows more leggy and less vigorously in shady parts of his yard, and like Kurapia, its flowers are a huge draw for bees and other pollinators, Chau said. —Jeanette Marantos, Los Angeles Times, 30 Jan. 2024

The 92 has a top speed of 18 knots with a leggy cruising range of 1,170 nautical miles—enough to run from, say, New York City to Miami without refueling. —Christopher King, Robb Report, 2 Jan. 2024

Five American flamingos touched down in Wisconsin last week, marking the first time the leggy birds have ever been spotted in the state, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. —Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Sep. 2023

Spiders are widespread predators in most cave systems: more than 1,000 species of the leggy carnivores reside in caves. —Jack Tamisiea, Scientific American, 20 Dec. 2023

Signed with a modeling agency in New York, time will tell if this leggy beauty can strut her way to the top! —Vulture, 6 Dec. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1776, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

leggy

adjective

leg·​gy ˈleg-ē 

1

: having unusually long legs

2

: having long and attractive legs

3

: spindly

a leggy plant